Johnson House
Waratah Room
Story by Educator Andrew
This week in Johnson House Waratah room, we worked together to create a ‘bubble station’ after the excitement shown last week by several of the children who had enjoyed interacting with our bubble wands.
We had discovered that, disappointingly, most of the bubble liquid was ending up on the ground, so today we designed another way of ensuring that we could get the greatest number of bubbles possible.
We gathered enthusiastically and worked as a team, affixing 25 wands of various sizes and shapes to the fence using cable ties.
The fence was quickly transformed into an amazing bubble paradise. Children came to the bubble station from across Johnson House once they saw the huge number of bubbles floating through the air.
Some of the children even experimented with different ways to interact with them, from trying to catch them on their wands to popping them with sticks and even using different sized rings to see how that would affect the size and quantity of bubble production.
The bubble station proved to be a wonderful social development opportunity too, bringing a wide range of children together and fostering social connections and bonds. We even saw children who typically don’t engage with each other frequently enjoying social interactions through their common goal of chasing the bubbles.
The magic of the bubble station even extended beyond the Johnson Waratah yard, as children from the playgroup eagerly joined in on the fun as they left the Infants home grounds.
What an amazing way to start our week, enjoying the beautiful weather and the fun that our newly created bubble station provided!
Family Day Care Sydney Wide
Story by Educator Support Officer Alix and Educators Una and Petra
This week I thought it would be fitting to share some Easter learning news stories.
Educator Una operates her Family Day Care service in Randwick. She is lucky to live in close proximity to many different locations where she can conduct a variety of excursions with the children in her service that greatly enhance their learning opportunities. One such location is Centennial Parklands. This week Una extended the children’s interest in, and excitement about, Easter by organising an Easter egg hunt in Centennial Parklands, with lots of wonderful explorations to be had. The children also explored an Easter sensory play tray, which allowed for open-ended learning and group participation, which enabled the children to share their ideas about Easter and engage in their own imaginative play ideas.
Over the other side of the bridge, in Avalon Beach, children at Petra’s Family Day Care service have been busily preparing for Easter. Petra has kindly shared her reflection on this with us.
“Easter is fast approaching, and all our little friends are getting very excited. We are well and truly into our Easter craft and today we made some Easter bunny decorations. We used a recycled cardboard box to cut our bunnies out and used open-ended materials to decorate our bunnies how we liked. The children engaged in conversations over their craft about what happens at Easter. There was a lot of “chocolate eggs” and “they so yummy in my tummy” and lots of smiles and giggles of excitement. Each child displayed a great sense of achievement with their Easter bunnies and were very excited to show them to their families.”
